God's written word, which we normally call the Bible, is the single most important source of inspiration for what you will find in the book "Emotional Prisons". My favorite English language translation is the New American Standard (NAS), and most of the Scripture quotes in the book will be sourced from the updated NAS. Occasionally I will use a different version or go back into the original languages for better illustration of a thought. In the section below you will find some examples of the type of observations and analysis that will be in the book.
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Do you want to be close to God?
Have you ever wanted to be close to God? Do you ever wonder where He is, just so that you can go and hang out with Him? Most of us, even the least spiritual person you know, have thought about this in some way. There is actually a very simple answer, and it doesn't involve doing any spiritual cartwheels or some 40 day super spiritual experience or even going to church every Sunday. Let us take a look at a simple statement right out of God's word where He tells us exactly where He is going to be. Psalm 34:18 says this:
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. NASU
This is God speaking to all of us saying, "I'm going to be close to the brokenhearted". It is an invitation to all of us, including non-believers to join Him in ministering to the down and outs of our world. The down and outs are not only people who are drunks and addicts, but it includes the man who can't stop looking at porn, the woman who struggles with a fantasy life through romance novels and the people you associate with who can't stop sinning but want to.
If you want to be close to God, go minister to people who are looking for help, you'll find Him there waiting for you.
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You are not protected!
Being a Christian does not protect you from falling into an emotional prison. In this issue a Christian is no different to any other religious person! Some Christians will reject that message or find it hard to accept. Psychologists call this denial, I call it dishonest. If you are a Christian reading this, and have the errant view that everything is better because you are a Christian, please wake up. Let me illustrate this truth with a famous verse of Scripture found in the book of Romans, chapter 3, verse 23:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. NASU
Notice the word “all”, this means every person. No one is exempt! This fact will be true for all of us until we physically die. Deep down every emotional prison has a root of sin. Some of us are able to deal with the issue of sins better than others, (I have not been one of them!), and others have not dealt with this well. It is the people that don’t deal with sin well and get overcome with their own emotions that get trapped. Christians are not exempt!
(This is an excerpt from chapter 14 of the rough draft of my book - it covers the dysfunctions within Christianity)
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